who took over as president at a time of crisis in a deeply divided country 50 years after his death, al jazeera world told the story. as you heard, architect as the modern lebanese state soldiers statesman honor g 0. ah, i'm sammy's a than in doha with a look at the headlines here. now g 0. now, the sudanese army says it will help foreign diplomatic staff evacuate the country as fighting between the army and the rapid support forces enters its 2nd week. personnel at the savvy rabid mission are reported to have already left. several countries are evacuating citizens from sudan as fighting between the army and the rapid support forces continues. hey, morgan has more from khartoum. many who we spoke to say that it is still not safe

for them to venture out of their homes. many of them still trapped around the vicinity of the presidential palace and the general command of the army. not sure if they'll be able to make it to where they are. embassies are over to where the evacuation is taking place for them to be taken out of the capital and out of the country safely. some foreign nationals have already been evacuated. saudi arabia, for example, was able to evacuate if nationals by the easton, coastal out put port, city of our port, sudan, and then underwood's to saudi arabia. had deal muhammad is in amadon, east of khartoum. she explains how civilians a coping under the violence. the shops are open, various are an hours, so it's very tight window for you to get food. but there's still supply going around. hasn't caught yet. and whereas all my friends and other neighborhoods have gotten no supplies for now a week and something now prices are going extremely high. every saying that

everything they're trying to buy now is extremely more expensive than it was before regular days. and it's causing a problem for them to even stay surviving. a mandatory camp in central molly has been attacked. it happened in the early hours. the sack today and of r i in the gal region, hundreds of un peacekeepers. the station in the area is feared the casualties. no group has claimed responsibility comes days after i saw affiliates reportedly took large carts of the region. people around the world, the mocking earth day, calling on politicians to step up the fight against climate change. wildlife populations have shrunk by nearly 70 percent since the 1st day in 1970 world has warmed, as well by at least 1.3 degrees celsius. and the un, whether agency says the world's place is disappearing rapidly and saving them as

a lost cause. the world meteorological organisation says the melting of some european grace has been in its words, off the charts. the past 8 years have been the warmest on record. the u. s. supreme court has ruled in favor of protecting access to a widely used abortion pill, at least for now, it's introduced a temporary block on a ruling from a lower court which had restricted the pill. more african countries look set to approve a new malaria vaccine that's according to the world health organization. ghana and nigeria have already endorsed the use of the new job. the w h o hasn't approved the vaccine. iran supreme leader has used his a message to call for unity. it follows months of protests against the mandatory wearing of the jobs. i'll just serious dosage avari has more from to her on the issue is the mandatory her job that women have been protesting against for months

is something the officials has gone back and forth on. and now they have started to put certain measures in place, including using the security cameras that are placed throughout the city to try and calm down on women who are not abiding by this law. this unity is an attempt to call for unity is an attempt by the supreme leader who is now 84 years old to try and rally the country together at a very tumultuous time. the chinese foreign ministers in the philippines as manila is staging, major minute free exercises with the united states. the countries have deep economic ties peruse, former president is said to be extra directed from the us to face corruption charges a 100 to lay the handed himself into authorities in california. on friday, he's accused of accepting more than $25000000.00 in bribes. it's the bottom

line now. i hi of steve clements, i have a question. what do you recently leaked american secrets? tell us about the ukraine war? let's get to the bottom line. ah. even before hundreds of sensitive us intelligence reports were leaked online, there were signs of small cracks in the unity between washington and keir. the documents paint a bleak picture of a war that is nowhere near an end and is far more likely to end with negotiations than a decisive military victory for either side. the credibility of a lead papers this suspect because so many have been altered by the time folks saw them, as they dribbled into social media sites like discord over the last few months. but they still highlight ukraine's challenges and getting more troops and ammunition not to mention wanting long range weapons,

an f 16 fighter jets and the papers show how central the united states is for the war and ukraine to keep grinding on. so what effects will the pentagon weeks have for the united states, and is it america's vision for victory, ukraine different than what the ukrainians want. today we're talking with matt demick, former director for russia in eastern europe in the us national security council. and. a kevin baron, the executive editor of defense, one news website. thank you both for joining me. kevin. let me just start with you and ask you, you know, we've had the leaks, we have, you know, little glimpses into america's views of what its allies are doing, decision making in ukraine strengths and weaknesses on the ukraine battlefield. but i guess as you step away from that, one of the lessons you see right now for this sustainability of this conflict and america's role in it. well, a lot there, look, i think the just for the leaks i 1st the story about the leaks is almost as regulatory as the leaks themselves. as you said,

there are still constant see or not more decisions being made about what's true and what's not within then the british defense minister today said a data lead there false cities in those leagues. but really it shows that the larger public i think doesn't isn't paying attention to the u. k. or as much as maybe defense reporters like myself are. because a lot of what we saw, we already knew, we knew that the americans believe that the ukrainians have limited capability. we knew that they, that they did not think the ukrainians have the ability to fully when the war, meaning kick, all the russians out of every interview. crane yes, including crimea. and that was going to happen anytime soon. it's a long slog. these are things defense officials, i've been saying for months and they've been saying them publicly different ways, different, different versions of it. so what the league shows is a lot of hard confirmation to it for people who maybe weren't believing what they were hearing or didn't know. and so all at once the whole world is talking about this, the simmering doubt about the future of the war. man, i know that you are no longer in the national security council,

but you sort of know how the place operates. and i think what we're trying to get out today, not knowing we're secrets, but really kind of being truthful. little bit more honest about some of the cracks in perspective that are out there. and i'm particularly interested in an article by julia you offer that recently ran in park called biden's private ukraine deadline. in addition to these documents that show that there is some anxiety about this war grinding on, and that there may be a gap between americas real position and desire and what ukraine thinks it's going to to do. but what are your insights in terms of managing expectations and relations around this sort of europe and russia file? well i think the ukrainians certainly understand the picture on the ground just as well as our intelligency that i think ukrainians know that they are in, for one of the toughest fights that they could possibly have to try to go after the russia problem. you know, all the russian troops that are inside their country,

you know, those, those troops as incapable as they seem to be of. ready going on the offensive and actually taking more ukrainian ground there still, you know, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of russian soldiers that are gonna have to be dug out of entrenched positions and blasted out of your ford areas. and that's not an easy task. and i think, you know, what the united states is saying is we do our intelligence assessments, is that is a very difficult operational military problem. it's going to be very costly and it's going to require immense amounts of material ammunition. and i get the sense that you, we, we don't think that maybe the ukrainians have all the equipment that they need and all the ammunition that they need to solve this very difficult and intractable operational problem. mean, isn't the deficit in the ammunition and supplies that they haven't needed? isn't that a function of us is not a function of nato allies? i mean, if they don't have what they need to fight this conflict,

they're not domestically procuring this inside ukraine. right now. they've got to acquire it from those that are supplying supporting it. so is the fault in that back in washington and in brussels. we're, you know, among other capitals. i think it's a contributing factor. i mean, look we've, we've sent immense amounts of equipment and it's been very helpful. i'll be it. we've sent it. we run our hands and we've taken our time and you know, a lot of cases we've sent it after you know, a long period of time, which probably wasn't necessary. but when it comes to, you know, piles of ammunition that i get the sense we're, we've pushed as much as we can as fast as we can, you know, in the current environment. and they're just are not unlimited supplies of this stuff to continue giving to the craniums, especially, you know, some of these, you know, air defense systems and some of the lower density pieces of equipment that are super capable on the battlefield. there's only so many, there's discrete numbers,

and when we're adding up all of the pieces and parts, it's going to be a close run thing for ukraine to get all of what they need on hand and to be able to employ in the months to come to effectively create some kind of russian route that pushes him out of these territories. and so it's everything. everything is on the table right now for just a grinding slug fest for the rest of this year. ukrainians may get some breakthroughs and push through, or you could grind down to just a bloody stalemate by the end of this year. kevin, let me ask you point blank, you know, the strategic class in washington. well general's admiral's current. former is all that. if we gave the ukrainians f, 16 fighters, if we gave them long range missiles and other long range weapons as ukraine, going to go invade attack inside russia. i mean, that's one of our concerns, isn't it? it is. and to their credit, they haven't now with the equipment they've been giving given cents, then i want to interrupt you. there's a concern at the blowing up the north screen pipeline,

some concern about assassinations inside russia, a various personalities, pro war personalities inside russia may have been done at, you know, the hands of ukrainian agents. and so if you're in that you're already worried about and beyond border military activity are the ucr and do they have almost a ridiculous question? the aspect of the ukrainians? because again, if you want them to push every russian out of every and that means you don't just attack the russian forces within ukrainian territory, you attack where they're coming from, you tack the bases are coming from the air bases. the supply routes, which is all inside russia. so it's an inherent to the idea of military victory will require that. but all those other sabotaged assassinations. you know, those are you know, credit. yes. that's ukrainians. prop possibly, perhaps are reportedly doing, you know, doing things inside of russia, but that's not, they're not doing things with american hardware credit. if you're sticking just with the idea of the pentagon equipment every, every step along the way, like my i was saying that there's been a call for increased to increase the advanced capability of the weapons. the west

is given the ukrainians. there's been a delay. and then eventually it comes, it started, you know, back with anti tank javelins in the spring, and it's worth to say to high mars. and then the latest attack comes and then f sixteens, right. and the answer from the pentagon is always the same. we talk to the trainings every day, we give them what we think they need to win right now. and we're giving your opinions what they want. well, those aren't, aren't always the same things and we know it, we know it publicly because the reclaims are saying we want these things specifically in the pentagon is making excuses. so just yesterday, the top policy official, the pentagon column call, gave an interview with foreign policy magazine. he was asked the f 16 question to his answer. the pentagon's answer is if they decided today to give them, they wouldn't arrive for about a year and a half within the capable force. and so f 6 and the decision to give f sixteens would not help the spring offensive wouldn't help the summer. but it would, it would, it would tag a lot of resources that could be used for other things like ammunition now. so it's not a 0 sum game. it's not an endless pit of kit that the united states has to give.

and it's, it is getting shorter and shorter than just last week. the pentagon authorized a $250000000.00, half a $1000000000.00 payment to reject rocker dine for rocket men, engines and rocket fuel. mr. one company. this is an enormous effort and no man, i mean i asked you about absolutely. if i were vladimir zelinski, i think i would want f sixteens, you know, i think there you know, things to bomb use. but can you explain to me the logic behind why the biden national security council does not want to give f sixteens to ukraine? yeah, i think as kevin rob excuses are somewhat disingenuous, you know, i think there's a, there's been a, just a constant hesitation on the part of the administration to give these pieces of equipment because they're worried about this mysterious russian escalation that could happen if these, if these weapons are handed over to the craniums. we should be long past any consideration of any particular weapon system being the trigger that causes russia

to escalate into something dangerous. they have plenty of opportunities in the past and that proven, incapable and making good on those promises. so honestly, there's really no excuse for the administration not to be giving the ukrainians everything that they ask for and give it to them when they ask for it. now whether f sixteens or the difference maker when it comes to a battlefield, it would certainly help them with their defense and control in their airspace. so it's a, it's a useful tool. ready and something that i think we're capable of doing without pulling from you know, to many other places or short circuiting our overall support be helpful weapon system, but also demonstrate a huge capability to the russians and give them give another thing that they have to worry about. on the battlefield is this rushes, afghanistan, that will take generations to recover from. is this a potential trap for the u. s. in europe as well? because i worry that as we're doing all of this, your, your friends that were over, you know, handling asia at the national security council watching china largely rise and, you know, seeing 2 of its potential, you know,

former competitors go at it while it has basically a free hand and a lot of other friends are we being distracted into, you know, an endless pit here of weapons and intrigue, and cos on both sides. i don't really, really, don't think so. from the russians perspective, this is afghanistan on steroids. this is the worst geopolitical catastrophe that they've inflicted on, on themselves in recent memory. and it will take decades for them to recover and for them to regain any kind of position in the world or gain geopolitical strength their, their position is seeping out every day that they're involved with ukraine and they're alienating europe. they've, they've certainly pushed no closer together. they've lost ukraine for a generation. if not longer. they pushed ukraine into the, into the arms of the european union and greater western integration. so absolute catastrophe for russia and welcome news for the united states and our western partners. and i don't see it as a distraction on the big political game,

political chess board as far as us taking off the ball with the china. i think there's a strong oregon argument to be made that are support for ukraine is essential and it's an investment in our own interest. and we're getting for pennies on the dollar . we're doing what we're doing to russia. ukraine. what we have tried to set out to do with our great power competition and all our strategies to deal with russia as a great power competitor. ukraine is dismantling russia's great power capabilities every single day. while they're sweeping up huge chunks of the russian military and doing a lot of the hard work that would have fallen to us into nato. if russia had, you know, continued to maintain their great power status. so i said as an investment in our interests and certainly certainly not a trap because i think we're getting, we're getting a grand bargain out of this. that will only help us in the larger, larger stage when we can focus some of those efforts. refocused them on china where we wouldn't have to. we're not, we're not gonna have to consider dealing with russia as

a huge threat in the coming years. and probably a couple of decades give us your take on the lease documents you lease documents, came through a private little group and, and you know, a minecraft game or some sort of, you know, gaming chord and jack to share apparently has been arrested accused of, of leaking this 21 year old guy who, who had a top secret security clearance and, and for compartmentalized information. i'm interested in the incident, but i'm also interested in official secrecy in washington. and how our allies must be looking at this. and whether we're in trouble with england, with france, with australia, with germany, with ukrainian will over the fact that a 21 year old kid could be playing these games and putting top secret higher for your question. what we're just talking about there are politics that lead this to happen. this isn't just a 21 year old. a young person in the united states for margin, taylor green, red mark is now defending this course, right in courses. and he's not just

a 21 year old with access to top secret information that's not unusual in the american system. in fact, our system was purposely built to lower the level of, of availability to classified information so that the students could be made faster . and this, and this is a lesson of the wars and iraq and garrison feel commanders and equivalent intelligence officers have that capability. whether you're just making briefing books for your general that you work for or you have another role. but this kid was not just an average american, he already was a radicalized right wing extremists. yeah. you know, he's largely statements online saying that that are anti semitic. there are racist . he's a gun obsessive. he's anti government, but he's already in the military. and he said he was regretting, as decision of being in the military. that is part of the, the rise of extreme, this right wing or politics that's, that's creeping across america and dependent on us to deal with this, the military to do with it. what it leads to is, everything else you said allies are now seeing what, what, what did i say it's really think to them and, you know, i see a lot of intelligence special saying, yes, it's damaging, but you know,

in our world allies know that allies think this way about each other. they know they had they spine each other. they know they have secrets, they know they have. they have a considerations. some are bigger than others. one of the biggest ones might be that egypt and we're going to give rockets to the, to the russians. that's a big deal that there i states i want to address with the egyptians. for example, let me ask you also, matt, that when it comes to thinking about where this war is going, do you see the outcomes as we've heard from general mark milly, we've seen other, you know, combatant commanders week out that we essentially need to see some sort of negotiated process and end of this begin, where are you on that? well, it's too early for either side to come to the negotiating table because they neither side has gotten to that stage where they can't, they can't continue on with the losses that they have. i think both sides are set russians are going to continue to trade bodies for time. ukrainians right now, still have a force in being and they're rapidly building up combat power for this upcoming

counter offensive. and i think we're just going to have to see it's very contingent upon a lot of things happening and we just don't know how fragile is the russian military . how hollow is that force if they're punched in the face? ready they fracture and give ground or will they, will they resist and will they yield? but just give ground that has to be, you know, retaken again. those are all the questions that are going to be answered here in the coming months. and if the russians been but don't break them, we're in for yet another year of fighting. and we'll see if the ukrainians can withstand that cost, both economically and the cost and in blood. but if, if the russians truly are as fragile as they might be, and some of the, you know, the morale indicators and equipment indicators show that that's not a great force that you want to be commanding. and there's only so much abuse that that force can take if the, if the ukrainians can find those pressure points in those cracks and smash it with enough mass and velocity. then you might see a rolling russian retreat that yields a lot of ground, like we saw last year when the last time the ukrainians had

a major, major kind of counter offensive. kevin had this guy, i think it's important to remember we're dealing with a madman who controls madman here. this is not, there's no logic to any of this. you know, the, the, the effort by the russians to take you create isn't one battle alone. some giant front, and if it doesn't go well, it makes sense that they would pull back and try something. none of this makes sense, right? so it's, that's let's, it's so hard for us around this table to try to predict and it makes it harder. i think for the pentagon, i do give a little bit of leeway to depending on planners and, and whether in uniform or civilian or college and trying to figure this out. it's easy for us to say, why don't they just get an f sixteens? you know, the school tory worry is over or it's, it's been, it's proven that russia is not going to do it. well, maybe we hope, but it's not on our head and it's not on our watch and we're not the ones under oath not to make those decisions. the guys, depending on do and did there is there's some validity to the argument that there's, there's of course urgency to end award,

their suffering going on and ukraine. but if it's going to take a little longer to save a greater or a disaster than that's maybe what it's going to take and people have to make those decisions to. so i agree with that that, you know, we're seeing just incremental movement, but a lot of people think that's always going to be good news for the ukrainians. anything that keep any, anytime we're not saying russia has taken a city, taken a province as march to keep their own. the country, like their initial goal was, is a good day for ukraine until the, the tide can be turn. and if you can, can turn it the only person that can, is potent or somebody in russia to change his calculus because it's not even the russian forces or finance these wagner forces. there isn't crazier than the russians. they're their leaders. so you know, good luck making sense of it all, but it everyone, nobody thinks it's going to be quick. everyone thinks it's going to be time, no matter what kind of weapons are, do you? we do, we have a divide between the pentagon and white house kevin over things like prosecuting war crimes, cooperating with the international criminal court. we just saw this horrific be

heading of a ukrainian soldier, seemingly by russian troops that has made its way around the internet is one of those horrible things i have seen. and that's only one microcosm of accusations on both sides of this. but my understanding is that the bite and white house wants to cooperate in bringing people to justice through the international criminal court. but the pentagon is not cooperating, fearing of setting a template where it, its own soldiers may in fact be held account. right? that's what that's always been there that hasn't taishan for the united states joining the international criminal court. and frankly, it's almost always come from the right. it's been the sphere of never allow a united states soldiers be commanded by a foreigner, even though they already are in our current system and people to know that at lower levels. but i think it depends on what you mean. but inside the pentagon, you know, nobody might, administration probably things differently, but there are, you know, military men who come up to the system, some of whom think that military men, of all stripes of all, you know, allies will,

should honor this code. and should there should be some sort of standard that, that they can be held to others believe what we were saying earlier that nope, will. i never want to have to hand over an american soldier to a foreign court to decide what of what he did was right or wrong based on our laws based on miracles laws, america's guidance. so i don't know what's the thinking as deep inside the pentagon about this? i do think that there is agreement and it's already been said that there are war crimes, general millie chairman, the joint chiefs, he's been saying for months and months that rushes, committee war crimes. they are committing crimes against the man. and he's listed them out publicly in press conferences for everyone to see. so the president senior most military advisor believes so. let me just ask you both. finally, do you worry that, that this conflict which has been somewhat contained, has not triggered nato has not led to nukes on, on the battlefield yet. but mat, do you worry that that final blow could actually lead to the escalation of this conflict? folks have been trying to avoid always in the back of everybody's mind. you've got

one combatant, that's got tactical nuclear weapons and potentially could employ those under certain circumstances of which we're not totally sure what those triggers might be . so that. ready is of course, in the back of people's minds and i think the russians are going to suffer horrendous casualties before this is all said and done. ukrainians are going to suffer equal amounts of casualties proportionately. it's going to be very bloody. there's still a lot of fighting left in this conflict and it's, it's going to take, you know, a lot more sacrifice before either side is going to be willing to say that's, that's enough. the costs are too high and we need to seek some kind of resolution. i don't see the russians ever getting to that point. they're either going to have to be defeated on the battlefield or ukraine's going to have to say, this is, this is too painful and we're gonna, we're going to going to go shooting table. kevin final word, you know, i think here, right the end there matter that with without, without some sort of pre,

a pre conceived agreement within their countries to take a big loss. there's no end inside meaning. and number one is crimea. so everyone assumes that, well, you can get to that point where they're done fighting and they know they're not going to take crime me and they doing the forces. they don't have the equipment, they don't, the kid russians not giving it up. so that will be the entry point, and russia will be happy to say we've done enough will, will you know where we suffered enough and will pull that will take that, but it's more than crime. it really is the rest of all the country east of the day, pure which has a lot of strategic value, a lot of land to the sea that require much for face. and i don't see negotiation any anytime in sight. and only the pentagon is saying that either when they're asked directly, i think even, even milly, who has said, all wars need to get to negotiate and, and ukraine doesn't have the forces you know, to, to do this easy job of taking out hundreds of thousands of russian troops and forces no one, nobody is really putting it on the table yet it would be be a shock to all of us if it started anytime soon. well, former national security council director, mat demik and defense one editor,

kevin baron, sobering conversation. thanks so much for joining us today. thanks. so what's the bottom line? what needs to happen to get russia and ukraine to the negotiating table? the answer depends on how much tolerance there is for this war inside the united states, inside europe, inside russia, and also yes, inside ukraine. the longer the conflict goes, the harder it is for allies to manage the politics and the economics of supporting ukraine. and that assumes that the war is done through proxies and not a direct conflict with either american or nato allies lives on the line. the future of the ukraine conflict will probably not end nicely or neatly, even if the negotiations start, they could be disrupted by barbaric acts on the battlefield, or the threat of nukes, again. and then even after the war comes to some sort of end, the russian people and the ukrainian people have suffered hugely from their losses . and they're gonna struggle to move forward and rebuilt. there is just no fairy

tale ending here. and that sadly, the reality and the bottom line, ah, a fraud takes on the big issues. this isn't a one off. he's talking about a systemic issue here. black gloves don't really matter in the police. world unflinching questions is war with lawanda, imminent rigorous debate. people who are dying because of lack of medical treatment, challenging conventional wisdom. the fact that people are starting to get angry about this is in itself a sign of progress. join me, mark him on hill for upright. what al jazeera with

blue i'm sam is a than in doll her with a look at the headlines here. now just here, now, the sudanese army says it will help foreign diplomatic staff evacuate the country is fighting between the army and the rapids or forces enters its 2nd week. personnel at the saudi arabian mission are reported to have already left. several countries are evacuating by citizens from sedan is fighting between the army and the rapid support forces. power millet.